Edward Snowden: South American leaders to meet over Bolivian plane diversion

Latin American presidents plan an emergency meeting on Wednesday over the diversion to Austria of a plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales, the Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations said.

By Reuters

3:05PM BST 03 Jul 2013

The Bolivian plane, which was taking Morales home from Moscow, was stranded and searched in Vienna on suspicion that it might be carrying fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

A search determined that Snowden was not on-board and the plane eventually left Vienna about noon on Wednesday.

"We have been told that an emergency meeting of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) is going to be held today," Sacha Llorenti Soliz told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday. No time for the meeting was mentioned.

"What's at stake here is ... the dignity of Bolivia and the dignity of Latin America," he said, adding that the presidents of Peru, Ecuador and Argentina had all spoken with Morales about the incident.